This morning, the Grand Chancellor of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, Riccardo Paternò di Montecupo, on an official visit to the Republic of Kenya, met with the Director General of the United Nations Office at Nairobi, Zainab Hawa Bangura.

The meeting was an opportunity to illustrate the Order of Malta’s global mission, with particular regard to its role as Permanent Observer to the United Nations. Activities in Africa, the central continent on the Order of Malta’s agenda, were also described. The Grand Chancellor said that the Order maintains diplomatic relations with 39 African countries and operates in 36 States through hospitals, medical centres, food-security programmes, education and assistance to refugees.

This was followed by encounters at the two agencies UN-Habitat (United Nations Human Settlements Programme) and UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme), with Executive Directors Anacláudia Rossbach and Inger Andersen respectively. During the talks, possibilities for cooperation were explored concerning health in rural settlements and in contexts of urban transformation and emergencies related to climate disasters, both in the field of humanitarian activities and in terms of advocacy

In the afternoon, the Grand Chancellor gave a lecture at Strathmore University entitled “The Order of Malta: its humanitarian diplomacy and activities in today’s increasingly volatile world”, before an audience of representatives of the diplomatic corps accredited to Kenya and students of the university founded in 1961, the first pre-independence institution in Kenya to accommodate students of all races, religions and social standing.

“Africa has imagination and strength. And the future belongs to those who can imagine it with determination. Your task,” he told the young students, “is to take on a historic responsibility. Today, power without accountability is useless. The new global ruling classes –political, economic, intellectual– will not be judged by how much they accumulate, but by how well they can protect human dignity, how well they can transform conflict into cooperation, how well they can build trust in international relations”.

Tomorrow, the Grand Chancellor will travel to the Kakuma refugee camp in northern Kenya, where Malteser International, the Order of Malta’s international relief agency, runs maternal and child health projects at the Kakuma Mission Hospital.